Police arrested their own yesterday (17/2/2010) on allegations of extortion. Inspector NI Msomi, Inspector T Naidoo and Constable NE Ndebele appeared in court today.

The three who are members of the Bellair Detective Service were arrested after they allegedly tried to extort money from a Richards Bay resident. It is alleged that the trio threatened to arrest the man in connection with a pending matter but would not do so if he paid an amount of R6000.

This amount would have been disguised as bail money. A sting operation was planned for Wednesday 2010-02-17 when the complainant would drive to Durban and meet the members.

The complainant, who was fitted with a recording device, met two of the members at Pavillion shopping Centre from where one of them, accompanied them to Bellair Saps.  At the station the complainant's fingerprints were taken after which he had to pay the money not to arrest him. The money was handed over soon after the complainant was released.

Members of the Hawks then recovered the trap money from a cabinet in the office of one of the accused policemen.  The cabinet keys were also found in his possession.

Statement issued by Musa Zondi, South African Police Service, February 18 2010

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter